Chapter 1489 Merger of Three Companies

After finishing his trip to South Korea, Simon returned to North America on March 2nd.

The first thing to pay attention to is the Valentine's Day schedule that has passed in North America.

Daenerys Entertainment's first major feature in 1999, the American version of "Love Call Transfer" starring Tom Hanks, was released on the eve of Valentine's Day on February 12, and finally opened on February 12 to February 18. It grossed $41.95 million at the box office in its first week.

Good start.

Subsequently, in the second week of its release from February 19th to February 25th, the decline of "Love Call Transfer" was well controlled to 36%, and it received another 26.83 million US dollars, with a total of 68.78 million US dollars.

Simon returned to North America on Tuesday, and the three-day box office of the film's third weekend has also been released. It continued to earn 12.89 million US dollars, and the cumulative box office exceeded the 80 million mark, reaching 81.67 million US dollars.

Obviously, it is only a matter of time before the American version of "Love Call Transfer" breaks through 100 million at the domestic box office. Moreover, referring to the current box office curve forecast, the North American domestic box office of this film is expected to rise to between 120 million and 130 million US dollars.

Let’s talk about overseas, although some countries with core ticket warehouses failed to realize the synchronization of Valentine’s Day, they have basically started painting at present.

As of Simon's return to North America, the cumulative overseas box office of the American version of "Love Call Transfer" has exceeded 70 million US dollars. Based on various data, the total overseas box office of the film is expected to be between 150 million and 200 million US dollars.

The worldwide gross is expected to hit $300 million.

The production cost of the film is 40 million US dollars, and the publicity expenditure is 20 million US dollars. The global calculation is based on 300 million US dollars. Only in the theater stage, this film can achieve a profit of about 70 million US dollars. It is obviously another big success.

The most intuitive experience is first of all China.

The original version of "Love Call Transfer" is domestically produced. After all, most people don't know the inside story of this project. Therefore, an adaptation of one of their own projects has achieved a box office of over 100 million in Hollywood, and a sense of pride arises spontaneously.

First of all, the project has passed the review of mainland China with a green light all the way, and the schedule is set for the end of March, which is absolutely fast in the field of imported films.

Secondly, the Lunar New Year film "Party A and Party B", which is still released in China, is the original cast of last year's "Love Call". On "Party A and Party B".

As the news of the US version of "Love Call" spread in China, the box office curve of "Party A and Party B" once again unexpectedly rose. Points are expected to reach 180 million yuan.

For this reason, Jinshu also planned to push its own original version into theaters for a re-screening when the American version of "Love Hurting" is released in China at the end of March, which can be regarded as a confrontation.

No matter how much you earn or how little you earn, it will definitely be earned.

Speaking of North America, for the success of this film, the industry inevitably has various interpretations, and plans to follow the trend.

It's just that some people, especially those in the Hollywood circle, have actually seen more.

The unpopular February schedule, even with the blessing of Valentine's Day, in the past years, those who can break through the threshold of the 100 million box office club are basically annual dark horses.

Now, is the American version of "Ai Hu" a dark horse?

doesn't count.

The main feature of a dark horse film is that it sells unexpectedly when no one is expecting it.

As for the US version of "Love Hoo", the total investment in production and publicity is 60 million US dollars, which can already be said to be a blockbuster level. The production company is willing to invest so much money in a project, and obviously has considerable expectations for the commercial prospects, so this is Not an accidental success.

However, the American version of "Love Hurting" is undoubtedly a very successful project, especially in February's unpopular schedule.

So the question is, why is it so successful?

Because today's Hollywood is no longer the Hollywood where everyone started to stand side by side.

Daenerys Entertainment, which was born out of nowhere, has occupied more and more resources, segmented a larger and larger market, and its strength has become deeper and deeper, and the living space for squeezing other peers has become smaller and smaller. changed everything.

Besides, in the past, according to everyone's traditional concept, it was very difficult to release a film with a box office of 100 million yuan in February.

Because during this period, compared with the year-end or summer files, first of all, the number of moviegoers has dropped significantly, which naturally reduces the market size. Secondly, even if the ticket pool is that big, in the past, everyone still had to compete with each other to cut the small cake even smaller. Therefore, it is difficult to produce blockbuster films with a box office of 100 million yuan.

Now, Daenerys Entertainment is breaking the rules.

Relying on its own strong publicity and distribution network, Daenerys first stimulated more people to enter the theater during this time period, expanding the market size.

Secondly, due to Daenerys becoming more and more powerful, other Hollywood studios have been continuously reducing production output and investment volume in recent years, resulting in significantly fewer projects competing with Daenerys' films during the same period.

The bigger the cake, the less competition, coupled with the excellent quality of the US version of "Love Hurting", it is not surprising that it easily broke the box office volume limit of the traditional February unpopular schedule.

Speaking of which, in the original time and space, this is also a trend in Hollywood.

Historically, when other popular schedules could not meet the schedule of its own films, the strong Dibao began to open up the February schedule.

The more typical one is "Black Panther", which was released in February, which to some extent also shows Di Bao's love for this Marvel pure black man.

Hero films are more or less unconfident, and the result is that this film sold 700 million US dollars in the domestic market only in the unpopular period of the beginning of the year.

This kind of market performance that completely broke the schedule restriction has the same internal reason as the American version of "Love Hurting" at this time. One is that Dibao was too strong at that time, and the other is that other competitors are getting weaker and weaker.

The major studios at that time, except for Disney, Warner and Universal, were nothing but empty shelves.

As for the current Hollywood in this time and space, Daenerys began to exert her unreserved efforts last year. Next, in addition to the "competitors" reserved by Simon's plan, other studios will inevitably become empty shelves soon.

Simon returned to Hollywood, and a certain merger case that had been quietly pushing forward also took shape.

About MGM and Fox.

There is also old Murdoch's small move of trying to acquire Lucasfilm first. Simon actually heard the news very quickly, but he didn't mean to intervene. Anyway, it ended up in his own pocket.

Because Simon stayed out, Murdoch eventually negotiated the deal for a total of $1.7 billion in cash and stock. 1.7 billion US dollars to acquire Lucasfilm, including Industrial Light & Magic, which has developed well in the cg field after Daenerys special effects in recent years, as well as popular series such as "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark". copyright.

You know, the reason why Disney used to spend 70 billion U.S. dollars to win Fox, in addition to the well-known desire to take back the copyright of the X-Men series, is another reason, that is, to completely collect the Star Wars series.

The global distribution rights of the first six Star Wars films, including many peripheral rights, were always in the hands of Fox before Disney acquired them.

Now, Fox has won Lucasfilm. Although Simon thinks that US$1.7 billion is a bit high. After all, more than ten years later, the price was only US$4 billion, but it is also acceptable. After all, in order to continue to ensure the right to speak, Lucas As much as $1.2 billion in stock equivalent to a 70% share was requested.

In short, next, MGM will merge with Fox, and Simon basically has a complete grasp of the super IP of Star Wars.

Also worth mentioning are Industrial Light & Magic and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Even though Simon's deliberate suppression over the years has made Industrial Light & Magic's technical level far inferior to what it used to be, it is still a fish that slipped through the net outside the Westeros system. Now that it is in his hands, Simon's control over Hollywood special effects movies will be on the rise again. a step.

Again, being able to do CG is not the same as being able to do special effects, just like a person who knows kung fu may not necessarily be a martial arts instructor.

And then there's Raiders of the Lost Ark.

This is also a gold mine series, but it's a pity that the distribution rights are in the hands of Paramount, and some of them are inseparable from Lao Si. However, as long as the project is launched, it happens that Paramount is already instigating Lao Si to shoot "Raiders of the Lost Ark 4".

After Lucasfilm was taken down, it was a question of who would merge with whom.

Murdoch won the parent company of the Star Wars series in advance, in fact, to gain more initiative in this regard.

Simon didn't force it.

After all, News Corporation is also a partner that Simon values ​​very much. Therefore, after returning to North America, the two had breakfast together, and the matter was finalized.

MGM merges into Fox.

However, as a concession, Shirley Lansing, who was promoted by Simon, will be the CEO of the new Fox film team after integration.

Let's talk about the specific size of the merger.

Due to the positive benefits of the Westeros system, coupled with a series of blockbuster projects in recent years, MGM's market value has always been on the high side, with a recent market value reaching 4.3 billion US dollars. For Fox, News Corporation, the parent company of 20th Century Fox, currently has a market value of $16.5 billion.

Apparently the big fish eat the little fish.

However, according to the agreement reached by Simon and Murdoch, News Corporation will conduct a split, cut into two independent parts of 20th Century Fox and News Corporation to be listed separately.

Even if the current print media industry is in decline, including News Corporation’s print media and TV assets in Australia, Europe, and Asia, after divestiture, the new News Corporation, which mainly focuses on print media and businesses outside the United States, will probably take away about $7 billion. Market value, the remaining assets of 20th Century Fox, including Fox Television Network, Fox Cable Network, Fox Pictures, etc., have a discount of about 9.5 billion US dollars.

Neither party asked for a premium or discount, and the deal was done at the current share price.

Also consider Lucasfilm.

Therefore, after the merger, the new 20th Century Fox Company, the original Fox holds 63% of the shares, George Lucas holds 8% of the shares, and the original MGM holds 29% of the shares.

Just looking at this shareholding ratio, it seems that Simon lacks the right to speak, but in fact, of the 63% of Fox's original shares, only 17% belong to the Murdoch family. Although it is broken down, it is also the largest shareholder. , but it is far from absolute holding.

To put it bluntly, the new company has basically leaned toward a publicly held company.

However, the reality is that minority shareholders must step aside.

As for major shareholders, they also need to rely on the board of directors to exercise control over the company.

This is also an aspect of the see-saw comparison between Simon and the old Murdoch.

Of course an agreement was reached.

In addition to the one requested by George Lucas in order to protect his own rights and interests, the planned nine-member board of directors will be divided equally between the two parties.

After all, if it is really necessary to fight for control of the new company through an open general meeting of shareholders, Simon and Murdoch will

Standing on the stage, there is no suspense at all about who those shareholders will choose.

In addition, compared to Redstone, who can turn against a group of children in order to seize corporate power, Murdoch is not so extreme in terms of corporate control. Moreover, Murdoch also knows that he doesn't have many choices.

If the deal is rejected?

Can.

At that time, we will be able to continue to firmly control the company in our hands.

However, based on the current trend of Hollywood, it basically means that this company will go into decline.

At breakfast that day, Simon directly clarified Murdoch's guess.

Therefore, this is an opportunity given by Simon to the Murdoch family, rather than Simon begging the Murdoch family to agree to this deal.

In the next Hollywood, Simon only intends to keep two competitors who can compete with Daenerys on the surface.

One of those slots has already been given to Warner.

The other one, which has already been confirmed, is to expand based on the MGM team.

If Fox doesn't get in the car this time, it will be even more difficult if he wants to get in the car in the future. Even in Simon's original vision, there was no chance for Fox.

Simon prefers Disney, which is currently in the hands of French Vivendi.

Even if too much luck is taken away by Simon, the big butterfly, Disney, which has a theme park business and a large amount of animation IP accumulation, is still a sweet pastry that can be revived with a little rectification. Therefore, even if the merger is successfully completed, Simon has no plans to give up Disney.

As for others, including Fox, it depends on fate.

Simon's initial thought was that the "Star Wars Prequel" series was about to be launched, and that a deeper alliance with the Murdoch family would further consolidate the voice of the Westeros system at the level of global public opinion.

However, if this side does not want to, it is still resignation.

As a result, in terms of transaction volume, it seems that 20th Century Fox has taken the lion's share, but in terms of control, it is obviously impossible to win too much control, just like when Fox was sold to Disney, and it is the same this time. It can be divided into half and at the same time, Murdoch will continue to serve as the chairman of the new company, which is already a very good result.

The basic transaction framework was reached, and the two parties officially announced the news on March 5.

There was an uproar again.

Obviously, Fox, MGM, and Lucasfilm, each of which can only be regarded as the bottom of the seven or the second-tier companies, combined together, immediately showed a giant image. In today's Hollywood, apart from Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner, which is backed by GE, the brand-new 20th Century Fox, as long as the merger is completed, it will directly and steadily catch up to the third position.

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